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Thursday Quotables

2026-04-23T02:58:35Z

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

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First Line Friday

2025-09-25T15:39:03Z

It was on a Monday, April second—I was cruising in the vicinity of Betelgeuse—when a meteor no larger than a lima bean pierced the hull, shattered the drive regulator and part of the rudder, as a result of which the rocket lost all maneuverability.

From the Star Diaries by Stanislaw Lem

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Thursday Quotables

2025-09-22T05:21:48Z

It is only when a man feels himself face to face with such horrors that he can understand their true import.

From Dracula by Bram Stoker

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Thursday Quotables

2024-06-09T09:52:02Z

Emotion is an essentially unconscious process.

~ Nico Frijda (1927– )

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Thursday Quotables

2024-05-21T11:48:18Z

To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose. To get rid of what you no longer need is neither wasteful nor shameful. Can you truthfully say that you treasure something buried so deeply in a closet or drawer that you have forgotten its existence? If things had feelings, they would certainly not be happy. Free them from the prison to which you have relegated them. Help them leave that deserted isle to which you have exiled them. Let them go, with gratitude. Not only you, but your things as well, will feel clear and refreshed when you are done tidying.

― Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

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Thursday Quotables

2024-02-15T06:11:53Z

Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.

From Chocolat by Joanne Harris

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Thursday Quotables

2023-11-24T11:56:59Z

“Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.”

― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven

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Thursday Quotables

2023-08-21T07:52:46Z

“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say”

From The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien,

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Thursday Quotables

2023-05-25T11:09:56Z

Life imitates Art far more than art imitates life.

- From The Decay Of Lying by Oscar Wilde

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Thursday Quotables

2023-05-03T06:48:53Z

But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

~ 1984 by George Orwell

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Thursday Quotables

2023-04-27T08:31:27Z

Hardly ever in my life had I felt disposed to honour one of my fellow-creatures with any especial degree of liking or approval; and when, for once, I had been moved to do so, it seemed as if the individual thus distinguished ought certainly to have felt some corresponding amount of inclination for me. Yet this had not been the case, since Kitty Mervyn had forgotten me, though I had not forgotten her.

- Jill by Amy Dillwyn

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Thursday Quotables

2023-04-05T08:33:01Z

Aging is not 'lost youth' but a new stage of opportunity and strength.

Betty Friedan, writer of The Feminine Mystique

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Thursday Quotables

2023-03-07T03:44:09Z

“Once a story you’ve regarded as true has turned false, you begin suspecting all stories.”

― The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Sequel to The Handmaid's Tale)

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Thursday Quotables

2022-11-11T11:25:39Z

"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else."

~ by Margaret Mead

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Thursday Quotables

2022-11-06T07:26:29Z

"The pen might not be mightier than the sword, but maybe the printing press was heavier than the siege weapon."

From Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett,

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Thursday Quotables

2022-10-26T11:28:14Z

"Remember the dignity of your womanhood. Do not appeal, do not beg, do not grovel. Take courage, join hands, stand besides us, fight with us."

- Christabel Pankhurst

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Thursday Quotables

2022-10-09T05:51:56Z

"Don’t worry. All is as it was meant to be. It was meant to be lonely and terrifying and unfair and fleeting. Don't worry."

From Condos, Welcome to Night Vale

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Thursday Quotables

2022-09-22T11:43:12Z

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
"Pooh!" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you.”

― A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

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Thursday Quotables

2022-09-22T05:18:59Z

Egotist, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.

From The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce,

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Thursday Quotables

2022-08-14T08:30:10Z

"That is the worst of women. They always want one to be good. And if we are good, when they meet us, they don’t love us at all. They like to find us quite irretrievably bad, and to leave us quite unattractively good."

From Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde

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Quote of the Day

2022-08-05T11:08:30Z

“For the secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for. Without a stable conception of the object of life, man would not consent to go on living, and would rather destroy himself than remain on earth, though he had bread in abundance.”

- Grand Inquisitor, from The Brothers Karamozov

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Book Beginnings on Fridays: If on a winter's night a traveler

2022-07-19T07:45:14Z

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler.

From If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino (1979; trans. William Weaver)

Among his work, I have read The Complete Cosmicomics, The Castle of Crossed Destinies, Difficult Loves, Invisible Cities, If on a winter's night a traveler and Six Memos for the Next Millennium. I really enjoy his experimentation with style, structure and topics.

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Thursday Quotables

2022-07-19T07:35:00Z

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”

From Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

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Thursday Quotables

2022-07-12T08:22:54Z

"You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood."

"What mood is that?"

"Last-minute panic."

From Calvin and Hobbes

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Thursday Quotables

2022-07-06T02:59:31Z

"You're really so desperate to be someone's hero. Then, even though it seems impossible, you must find a way to do what you want.

"Isn't that what makes the hero a hero? To want something and to do whatever it takes to have it: Power or glory, absolution or happiness, for yourself or someone else, justice, balance, 'the right thing'.

"But harbor no illusions. The only person you're doing any favours for is yourself.

"The hero, the most selfish person in the whole world."

from HERO the web comics: It's very beautiful and thoughtful. Sadly it hasn't been updated since 2018

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